This week’s guide is by CF Smith and contributors, Words By Shoaib, Benny Thomas, and Irfan Ayaan.
Our latest Between The Cracks is here. Every week, we recommend six new releases to take you into the weekend. This edition moves through bold improvisation, boundry pushing experimentation, and quietly glowing singer songwriting. DoYeon Kim stretches traditional Korean gayageum into something beautifully future‑facing. Play Time bring their playful, free‑flowing energy. There’s deep resonance in the collaboration between Duval Timothy and Carlos Niño, a meeting of textures, meditations, and gentle sonic worlds. Loraine James continues to bend electronic music into new shapes, while Violet Cowboy rides the line between glitched, playful, off-centre cinematic music with effortless charm. Natalie Wildgoose offers tender, atmospheric songwriting that lingers long after the last note. As always, enjoy the music and support the artists and labels who keep the world interesting. Check out our latest picks below.
Albums
DoYeon Kim – Wellspring
With new music dropping at a relentless pace, the good stuff comes thick and fast. A few weeks back, I thought I’d finally cracked it, caught up on all of the albums in my must‑listen pile, and even lined up reviews for the site from myself and the team. Naturally, that calm didn’t last. Another wave of releases landed, and suddenly I was staring at a fresh stack of records I needed to hear and write about all over again. I’m not moaning, though, as being buried in new and exciting sounds is exactly where I like to be, which leads me to Wellspring, an album that suddenly dropped onto my radar and raced to the top of the must-listen pile. Masterful composer-improviser DoYeon Kim is an unparalleled practitioner of the Korean gayageum (a silk-string zither) and also possesses a purposeful vocal intensity. Her debut album as bandleader, Wellspring, marks the arrival of a powerful new voice in creative music, unrelenting in passion and invention, while always conveying a deeply empathetic grace. From the opening track, Kim sets out her stall with ‘The Beats of Distant Thunder‘, an ear-catching, powerful blend of avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, and traditional Korean musical heritage. Speaking about the song, Kim explains, “This is the first time I open my hand to the world, a first greeting,” she continues. “I wish people hearing this music [receive] energy and comfort. I want to be there with them.” Flanked by underground mavericks Tyshawn Sorey, Mat Maneri, and Henry Fraser, Kim doesn’t entertain the idea of slipping into a background‑texture role; she drags her instrument into the thick of it, refusing to let it fade into any comfortable jazz frame. ‘Linear System‘ forms the colossal first half of the album’s 21-minute epic finale. According to Kim, the track is “instrumentally constructed around the literal theme of the human life cycle.” On the closing, Calculus of Our Souls, Kim restfully refuses to sit back; she pushes her instrument and voice into the centre, cutting through her ensemble with jagged clarity. It’s an album built on passion and a simmering intensity, unfolding in a way that’s impactful, absorbing, and endlessly engaging. – CFS
Play Time – Magic Object
Magic Object, the debut from Hudson Valley-based trio Play Time, treats improvisation and pulse minimalism as parts of one evolving system. Saxophone, drums, and Moog move together around looping grooves rather than trading spotlight solos. Open The Door, Joey sets the tone. A simple pattern locks in and the trio gently pushes and pulls against it. Q & Aplays like a conversation in rhythm. Small shifts in phrasing answer each other and gradually reshape the underlying pulse. Wanderers drifts further, with lines that feel like walking routes through an unfamiliar town. The title track Magic Object tightens the focus again. It builds a compact, almost hypnotic figure and then toys with its edges. Later, Waves Within Waves and 22° Halo stretch into more atmospheric territory. They show how much colour the group can draw from limited materials. Float All Bones closes on a concise, levitating note. The record feels both analytical and warmly physical. Think of a mix of Jeff Parker ETA IVtet and SML, and you’ll get somewhere close. – IA
Duval Timothy/ Carlos Niño – rain music
I’m a fan of both Carlos Niño and Duval Timothy, and was extremely happy when Colin sent me their collaborative album a few weeks ago. After a number of listens, I’m happy to report it’s as good as I expected. I just finished Rain Music for the fourth time, and honestly, I’m still sitting here in that weird, floaty headspace it puts you in. So the story goes, on a random day off from touring in November 2025, Niño drifted over to Timothy’s studio, strolling through that light London rain. They’d been into each other’s music for ages, swapping casual little Bandcamp messages that somehow turned into, ‘Yeah, let’s actually meet up. That meeting turned into this quiet, beautiful collaboration. ‘loopy‘, ‘ideations on rain‘, ‘birds, shells, rivets, keys‘ and ‘beautiful, tender, colours‘ are the tracks that really jump out for me, four little flashes where you suddenly go, ‘Oh yeah, this is the good stuff’. Bravo! – BT
Loraine James – Detached From The Rest Of You
On Detached From The Rest Of You, Loraine James strips her sound down until every click, breath, and silence feels exposed. The album still carries her signature IDM architecture, but this time the emotion sits closer to the surface. Rather than hiding behind abstraction, James leans into direct songwriting without losing the cold, fractured beauty that defines her work. The result feels intimate in a way her earlier records only hinted at. Lead single ‘In a Rut’ featuring Sydney Spann is one of the album’s strongest moments. The skeletal beat and looping textures create a feeling of emotional paralysis, while both vocal performances sound quietly exhausted rather than dramatic. It’s pop music viewed through cracked glass. ‘Score’ with Anysia Kym pushes further into minimalist territory. The flute details and sparse production leave large gaps, giving the track an eerie tenderness that lingers long after it ends. Sitting at the album’s midpoint is a trio of tracks: ‘Flatline‘, ‘Peak Again‘ and ‘Habits and Patterns‘ that deliver its sharpest moments. Miho Hatori, Alan Sparhawk, and Tirzah each leave a vivid fingerprint on these tracks, their voices and sensibilities sharpening the album’s most memorable moments. Even at its most restrained, Detached From The Rest Of You feels deeply human. Loraine James turns digital minimalism into something bruised, vulnerable, and strangely comforting. – WBS
Violet Cowboy – Ramraid at the Wiggly Worm
Violet Cowboy‘s Ramraid at the Wiggly Worm is a wonderfully unpredictable journey through ambient, experimental electronics, dub, and fractured folk textures. Stephen Maskell embraces a free-flowing approach, stitching together field recordings, blues guitar, minimalist passages, and glitchy electronics into an album that feels both playful and mysterious. Rather than settling into a single style, the record thrives on constant transformation, rewarding listeners willing to follow its winding paths. ‘Weird Breakfast’ offers an inviting introduction, pairing hazy ambient layers with subtly shifting rhythms that gradually reveal the album’s adventurous character. Meanwhile, ‘Mornington Crescent’ expands the sonic palette through hypnotic repetition, textured electronics, and memorable spoken lines like “Elizabeth I resembles Sonia from EastEnders.” The track balances curiosity with quiet tension while hinting at the stranger turns still to come. The expansive ‘San Genaro Liquid’ wanders through soft piano tones, eerie aquatic sounds and glitchy electronics over 8 minutes. ‘Do The Basic Bogle’ is a quick, disorienting hit of glitch electronics, shoving the album into the twitchy, off‑centre territory that nods toward classic Aphex Twin chaos. The remaining tracks continue blurring boundaries between genres without losing their sense of purpose. Dub echoes, cinematic guitar passages, and abstract sound design coexist naturally, creating vivid scenes that feel rooted in both urban mythology and dreamlike imagination. Ramraid at the Wiggly Worm is a deeply immersive listen that refuses easy categorisation. Maskell transforms experimentation into compelling storytelling, proving that his most adventurous ideas are also his most rewarding. – WBS
EP’s
Natalie Wildgoose – Rural Hours
Natalie Wildgoose‘s Rural Hours is a small record lasting only 16 minutes, but it feels larger the longer you sit with it. Across six brief songs, she draws on piano, sparse guitar, violin, and her soft but steady voice to evoke moorland weather, empty paths, and the strange intimacy of solitude. I love how her songs don’t strain for atmosphere; they breathe it. ‘Nobody On The Path‘ and ‘River Days‘ are especially lovely, full of open space and quiet motion, while the ghostly opener ‘A Dream In Winter‘ sets the tone with its brief, haunting but gentle presence. What keeps Rural Hours from drifting into prettiness is the sense of place and purpose behind it. Wildgoose made the EP over the course of a year, recording in remote Yorkshire spaces and, for part of it, in a candlelit bothy high in the Dales with collaborators Chris Brain and Owen Spafford; you can hear that physical isolation in the songs’ hush, but also a deep composure. At just 16 minutes, Rural Hours leaves quickly, yet hangs lovingly in the mind. – CFS
